IRVINE, Calif., July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Antigen Discovery Inc. ("ADI", formerly ImmPORT Therapeutics Inc.), a leader in high throughput antigen/biomarker discovery using advanced genomics and proteomics tools, announced today that the Company was awarded a Phase II SBIR from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The $3 million grant will fund efforts to further develop ADI's protein microarray based serodiagnostic platform for applications in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. ADI will collaborate with investigators at the Proteomics Core facility of the Pacific Southwest Regional Center of Excellence (PSW RCE), located at the University of California, Irvine.

"The major bottleneck that limits the translation of readily available genomic information into the development of next generation diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics, is the continued lack of effective antigen and biomarker discovery tools," said Dr. Xiaowu Liang, CEO of ADI. "We are grateful that the SBIR program continues to fund ADI and our UCI collaborators in the further development of this exciting new technology platform that truly revolutionizes the screening and detection of disease markers."

"The focus of this grant is to commercialize some of the broad applications of the platform technology that were developed during previous funding phases. The establishment of a Good Manufactuing Practices (GMP) facility, and a Clinical Research Lab will enable us to offer diagnostic products and services to physicians, point of care facilities, developers of novel vaccines, and pharmaceutical researchers," added Dr. Huw Davies, the Principal Investigator on the SBIR grant. "By using our novel protein array systems and statistical algorithms, we can rapidly discover antigen sets that will provide serological tests that discriminate between different infections, or even between different stages of the same infection."

About Antigen Discovery Inc.

Antigen Discovery Inc. (formerly ImmPORT Therapeutics Inc.) is a privately held biotech company with innovative technologies that offer unprecedented advantages for the rapid development of safer and more effective vaccines and diagnostic products. The Company's high throughput proteome microarray chip fabrication and screening platform provides an order of magnitude of improvement over current antigen/biomarker discovery technologies. The technology also has potential applications in the identification of markers for autoimmune disease and cancer.